#that's a good analogy. the coat was very illfitting for most of them for a long time

[sanstropfremir]

i've been thinking abt that ask where you said artistry and celebrity are mutually exclusive and how key straddles that, i think the difference is that he understands fame not as a byproduct of his work but as the foundation and raison d'etre; he treats being a celebrity as a privilege and a responsibility and has been like that practically since debut. whereas the rest of shinee wore fame like an ill fitting coat until they found their own ways of dealing with it (cont)

most obviously with taemin's entire discography but also with how minho and jinki have perfected the balance of being very open and straightforward while still clearly delineating their work from their personal lives. and jjong going the other way and leaning into the communicative, relationship-building aspect of his art. idk if this makes sense but it's interesting how besides key, who i think is pm the same in solo vs shinee, they pick and choose what aspects to show as a group

yes i agree. he's one of the few people that understands celebrity as the basis for the work that he does and you're absolutely right, he treats it with responsibility and reverence. he has kept relatively the same persona because he knew celebrity was what he wanted and knew and was prepared to do what it takes. a lot of people go into being an idol with the vague goal of wanting to be famous, but most people never reach a place of significant fame and even when they do, very few people are actually equipped to deal with it in a healthy way. bad love has his relationship with celebrity at the core of it and i find it such an interesting exploration that's very different from how taemin and jjong have approached the same topic in their work.

being in a group requires different energies than doing solo work does. being solo exposes your flaws and also exposes you if you aren't prepared for it, but in a group you can lean on each other to cover those up. and imo they all lean into this hard; in shinee they are so so confident and everything they do is built on their strengths, but all of them as solo artists are much more vulnerable. on purpose, i might add. they use their solo endeavours to tackle things that they feel like they want to improve, or that they want to talk about but are more sensitive/unsuitable topics for 'shinee' to touch on. minho and jinki both focussed more on skill improvement and expectation shattering, if that turn of phrase makes sense, taemin does (waves hand at my entire blog), jjong covered a very wide array of topics, and key touched on the melancholy and loneliness of self and celebrity with bad love.